Titanic star Jason lands key role in new Love/Hate series

The Dublin star played Tommy Ryan, who introduced Leonardo Di Caprio's character Jack to the Irish community below deck, in the 1997 movie.

Jason said that the recent launch of the Titanic 3D provided a great opportunity for him to catch up with some former co-stars and friends.

"It was good to see Kate Winslet again, and you know I've seen Billy Zane a bit in LA and Bill Paxman," he said.

Jason had completed his studies at Trinity College when "after a couple of years of living in the UK, the Titanic thing came in. I was put on tape and it was sent off to director James Cameron in LA," he said.

Pivotal

"And then he came over about a month later and met a bunch of actors, and about three weeks later I got the call to say 'do you want to go to Mexico for six months?'"

Jason (39) said that he has enjoyed getting his teeth into the pivotal role in the latest series of Love/Hate.

But although he has been filming for more than six weeks, the true identity of his character must be kept under wraps.

"Pretty much all the Love/Hate stuff is on location. It's a great show. They're a good bunch and the scripts are very good," he said.

"They told me not to really talk too much about it, unfortunately, but it's a good role it's something that I hope people here ... well, they wouldn't have seen me play this type of role before."

Dad-of-two Jason is now based in LA and has returned to Dublin for Love/Hate filming -- the new series produced by Octagon Films is expected to air on RTE at the end of this year.

clairemurphy@herald.ie